Inclusion of People of Color in Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy: A Review of the Literature

Background: Despite renewed interest in studying the safety and efficacy of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy for the treatment of psychological disorders, the enrollment of racially diverse participants and the unique presentation of psychopathology in this population has not been a focus of this potentially ground-breaking area of research. In 1993, the United States National Institutes of Health issued a mandate that funded research must include racial and ethnic minority participants and proposals must include methods for achieving diverse samples. Methods: A methodological search of psychedelic studies from 1993-2017 was conducted to evaluate ethnoracial differences in minority inclusion and effective methods of minority recruitment. Results: Of the 18 studies that met full criteria (n=282 participants), 82.3% of the participants were non-Hispanic White, 2.5% were African-American, 2.1% were of Latino origin, 1.8% were of Asian origin, 4.6% were of indigenous origin, 4.6% were of mixed race, 1.8% identified their race as “other,” and the ethnicity of 8.2% of participants was unknown. There were no significant differences in recruitment methodologies between those studies that had higher (> 20%) rates of inclusion. Conclusions: As minorities are greatly underrepresented in psychedelic medicine studies, reported treatment outcomes may not generalize to all ethnic and cultural groups. Inclusion of minorities in futures studies and improved recruitment strategies are necessary to better understand the efficacy of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy in people of color and provide minorities with equal opportunities for involvement in this potentially promising treatment paradigm.